Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1887-09-03

a hundred according to the amount of artistic
handiwork displayed upon them. Then the
chips were like coins and stack was worth
Its weight in silver, but ivory chips were not
as good as these we now sell for from $40 to
S25 a thousand. Ivory chips were always a
source of trouble to their owners. They were
seriously affected by changes of temperature
and by moisture and were constantly crack
ing or warping out of shape.
THE BEST CHECK
s'The best checks are those which are per-
Sectly fat, of even thickness and equal dia-
meter. They must stack up evenly, for the
adept poker player never wants the trouble
of counting his checks. He can pick up five
lay them against the side of an odd stack and
cut off five more Putting the two fiYes to-
gether he has the gage of half a stack, and
with them cuts out ten more checks from the
pile to make an even stack. He will keep
that stack whole as long as he can, to measure
up against Now you can easily see that
checks must be all of the one thickness and
perfectly fat, or the measurement may be
faulty All the checks in use now are made
of composition pressed into dies. Rubber and
celluloid checks are sold in considerable guam
titles, but neither of these materials are con-
sidered as good as certain secret compositions
made by five or six firms III this country with
shellac as basis
''Here is a check made in Newark. The ma
terial seems as hard as stone and I believe
that there is considerable stone in the COM
position. The manufacturer has made at least
q, 200, 900 checks in the last five years. They
are made twenty-five at time in steam heat
ed presses, and these lines and figures which
figures in the molds. Before he produced
these checks they were all engraved by hand
at considerable cost, and the only low priced
poker chips III market were plain or ringed
This is the favorite size of checks-just the
diameter and thickness of silver dollar The
maker employs 100 hands, who can turn out
about 81, 900 checks every day, but the bust
ness is not confined to poker chips alone
They make fancy buttons, checkers, and mar
tingale rings of the same composition.
s'Here is white check with an owl outlined
in blue, and here are blue and red checks,
with horse Shoes crowns, elephants and an
chors outlined in white. He has fifteen de-
signs, six of which are special patterns made
only for their originators A year or two ago
one of the big tobacco manufacturers order
ed ,OO0,O 900 checks of this size with the adj
upon them. They were given away to Gus
toners, and the biggest part of them went
west and south.
AS A HOME AMUSEMENT.
"Did the gift of this quantity of checks
make any difference in sales with you"
mo; the business is steadily increasing all
the time, and the increase is largely due to
the fashionable popularity of draw poker as
Do1. -
be increasing everywhere. Five or six young
men make up club to play at one anothers
houses, and each one has to have a full outfit
of cards and checks If they met in a club
room one set of checks would answer for all.
Thew pay 81 or IS hundred for the checks,
and like 10 have different designs for each
house they play at. Dealers have their
favorite designs, and because they talk them
up to their customers, they sell a great many
of them to the exclusion OF other designs l
have California customer who buys moth
ing for his trade but the horse shoe pattern,
and there is a club uptown which uses moth
ing but shamrocks. The members have faith
in luck attending the trefoil. We sometimes
have orders for 100, 600 checks at time. An
order of this kind generally asks for four col
ors. Nearly one-half will be white, one-third
red, and the remainder divided between blue
and yellow in the proportion of two blues to
one yellow. Yellow is almost invariably
used for the highest priced checks, and white
for the lowest These polished walnut boxes
contain 100 checks. Half of them are white,
and the other half equally divided between
red and blue. One box is not enough for an
ordinary poker party, and some little poker
circles that / know of have rs many as 600
a a L.
able to get along nicely with 200 checks, but
many players have prejudice against sell
ing from their winnings, and the banker may
run out of checks while they are stacked up
on the table in front of one or two lucky men,
who think that it will break their run of luck
to cash any of them in before they are ready
to quit the game. Nearly all poker players
are superstitious to a degree. New York
SIM.